Hey - thanks for all the input guys ! It's looking more and more like a trip to Chengdu. My wife is from Wenzhou and she has a brother living there that can help me with a 'temporary residency permit' . However my work permit and current residency permit is all from Shanghai so don't know what this means when my details 'hit the system' ! My wife is the one whom called the driving authorities there but I am now thinking that 1) they misunderstood and the test is for the car or 2) They did understand and the test is still for the car but I can transfer the licence as a full licence with the bike thrown in on top.... 3) Nobody understood anything and I'm just going out of sheer persistence ! ha ha - well find out soon enough.